BIDAR: A 20-year-old man who went out to a neighbourhood market to bring vegetables suddenly collapsed to his death in Bidar district’s Kamalanagar taluk Sunday, reportedly due to sunstroke.Mohammed Sameer, from Uttar Pradesh, was working in a salon in the town, about 60km from Bidar.Police said they are awaiting the post-mortem report. If confirmed, this could be the first case of a heatstroke death this summer in Karnataka. Day temperature in Bidar district was hovering around 40°C, well above the season’s day average of 36-37°C, on Sunday. Neighbouring Kalaburagi, about 120km away, is in the grip of a heatwave, with the mercury shooting through the 44-degree-Celsius barrier. Sameer’s father Laik Ahmed has filed a complaint with Kamalanagar police, saying his son’s death was due to sunstroke. Before he collapsed in the middle of the road, Sameer, seemingly exhausted in the sun, sat at a shop and drank water. “He rested for a few minutes before hitting the road again,” a witness said.Border town Kamalanagar is just a shout away from Maharashtra, which is experiencing extreme heat conditions. Bidar, where maximum temperatures are expected to be in the mid-40s in the coming days, has informally restricted business hours from 8am to 2pm. Govt offices, too, open early and close post noon, to beat the heat.
